PREYING ON THE HOMELESS SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED

The allegation by Vancouver police that the owners of three Downtown
Eastside hotels are preying on the homeless, the mentally ill and the
addicted are shocking, but not surprising.

The allegations of drug dealing, welfare fraud, dealing in stolen
property and violations of the health code fit the pattern police
have been uncovering in an ongoing crackdown on as many as 30 hotels
in Vancouver.

Last year, the Marr Hotel was ordered shut down after similar
violations were uncovered and one of its owners convicted of welfare fraud.

In the latest round, the Astoria Hotel on East Hastings Street and
the Lucky Lodge on Powell Street are described as little more than
"crime marts," with one-stop shopping for drugs and stolen property
for anyone willing to put up with rodents, cockroaches and bedbugs,
and a good chance of getting fleeced.

Vancouver police should be commended for targeting these hotels. But
their actions have unintended consequences -- they contribute to the
unresolved issue of housing the poor.

A Vancouver Sun investigation of homelessness last year found that in
the past 40 years the number of single residential occupancy rooms in
downtown Vancouver -- the only ones people on welfare can afford --
had dropped by 50 per cent.

That has led to the absurd situation we now face in which poverty
advocates in the Downtown Eastside have tried to keep police and city
inspectors from enforcing health and safety regulations because of
their understandable view that a decrepit hotel room is better than
no room at all.

Unfortunately, it's not just insects that prey on people who are
forced to seek such shelter, but vermin in human form.

Vancouver Police Inspector Bob Rolls rightly described such people as
"predators and parasites" right out of a Dickens novel.

The problems of homelessness are complex and the need for housing of
any kind is great. But we cannot allow people who break so many laws
to go unpunished in the name of serving their victims.

These allegations -- yet to be proven in court -- should be
prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The province should also consider using the latest weapon in
combating crime, the Civil Forfeiture Act, which was passed by the
legislature this fall.

The new law allows the provincial government to apply to the court to
seize property that has been used for unlawful purposes or that was
gained as the result of unlawful activity.

This untested legislation might be the kind of deterrent we need to
send people who prey on some of Vancouver's most defenceless
scurrying out of town.